past

For the moment at least, the Darwinian period is past; we can no longer enjoy the comfortable assurance, which once satisfied so many of us, that the main problem has been solved - all is again in the melting pot. By now, in fact, a new generation has grown up that knows not Darwin. Is even then evolution not a scientifically ascertained fact? No! We must hold it as an act of faith because there is no alternative.

Dr. D. H. Scott

Source: Presidential Address of the Botanical Section of British Ass’n for the Advancement of Science, 1921

We must drop the idea that change comes slowly. It does ordinarily - in part because we think it does. Today changes must come fast; and we must adjust our mental habits, so that we can accept comfortably the idea of stopping one thing and beginning another overnight. We must discard the idea that past routine, past ways of doing things, are probably the best ways. On the contrary, we must assume that there is probably a better way to do almost everything. We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all.

The little boy-that-used-to-be On Christmas morning watched the tree. He hid beneath a man's disguise, But oh! the sparkle in his eyes! He watched his son with great delight And how his heart leaped at the sight Of Junior opening up his toys, And then . . . there were two little boys. One half past three, and one . . . oh well, His age in years why need we tell: It did not matter as they played With auto, train and gay parade. Circus and games and toy pop-gun I'm sure I do not know which one Was happier . . . the half past three Or grown-up lad-that-used-to-be.

There comes a time in some relationships when no matter how sincere the attempt to reconcile the differences or how strong the wish to recreate a part of the past once shared, the struggle becomes so painful that nothing else is felt and the world and all its beauty only add to the discomfort by providing cruel contrast.

I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.